Forestry in India

Forestry in India is a significant rural industry and a major environmental issue.

Dense forests once covered India. As of 2010, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates India's forest cover to be about 68 million hectares, or about 20 percent of the country's area. In qualitative terms, however, the dense forest in almost all the major Indian states has been reduced. Forest degradation is a matter of serious concern.

In 2002, forestry industry contributed 1.7 percent to India's GDP. In 2006, the contribution to GDP dropped to 0.9 percent, largely because of rapid growth of Indian economy in other sectors and Indian government's decision to reform and reduce import tariffs to let imports satisfy the growing Indian demand for wood products.

India produces a range of processed forest (wood and non-wood) products ranging from sawnwood, panel products and wood pulp to bamboo, rattan ware and pine resin. India's paper industry produces over 3 million tonnes annually from more than 400 mills, which unlike their international counterparts, mostly uses the more sustainable non-wood fiber as the raw material. Furniture and craft industry is another consumer of wood.In India only 76million hecatiers of land is under cover, which is about 23% of the total forest cover of the total geographical area.

India's wood-based processing industries consumed about 30 million cubic meters of industrial wood in 2002. An additional 270 million cubic meters of small timber and fuelwood was consumed in India. Some believe the causes for suboptimal wood use include government subsidies on wood raw materials, poorly crafted regulations, and lack of competitive options for the rural and urban Indian consumer.

India is the world's largest consumer of fuelwood. India's consumption of fuelwood is about five times higher than what can be sustainably removed from forests. However, a large percentage of this fuelwood is grown as biomass remaining from agriculture, and is managed outside forests. Fuelwood meets about 40 percent of the energy needs of the country. Around 80 percent of rural people and 48 percent of urban people use fuelwood. Unless India makes major, rapid and sustained effort to expand electricity generation and power plants, the rural and urban poor in India will continue to meet their energy needs through unsustainable destruction of forests and fuel wood consumption.

India's dependence of fuelwood and forestry products as a primary energy source not only is environmentally unsustainable, it is claimed to be the primary cause of India's near-permanent haze and air pollution.

Forestry in India is more than just about wood and fuel. India has a thriving non-wood forest products industry, which produces latex, gums, resins, essential oils, flavours, fragrances and aroma chemicals, incense sticks, handicrafts, thatching materials and medicinal plants. About 60 percent of non-wood forest products production is consumed locally. About 50 percent of the total revenue from the forestry industry in India is in non-wood forest products category. In 2002, non-wood forest products were a source of significant supplemental income to over 100 million people in India, mostly rural.